Mini Malaysia & ASEAN Culture Park

Mini Malaysia & ASEAN Culture Park is located a few kilometres outside of Melaka, near the town of Ayer Keroh. This is where you could find the traditional culture of and architectures in Malaysia.

Dances

Once we arrived, we were brought to the theatre hall to see the different dances of Malaysia. The dance started off with Joget Zikir Bertitah of Kelantan, Zapin Johor, Chinese fan dance, chetty dance, baba nyonya dance, joget malaysia and Cuti-cuti 1Malaysia Dance. According to Mini Malaysia spokeperson, the cultural show is performed twice daily at 11a.m. and 2p.m. On public holiday and weekend, there are 3 shows daily at 11am, 2pm and 4pm.

The dances were great and exciting especially the baba nyonya dance and chetty dance. Recommended for first time visitor to Melaka.

Houses

Next, we visited many types of houses at Mini Malaysia & ASEAN Culture Park. The first house we went was Rumah Perlis where the traditional Malay living is showcased. The old wooden house built on stilts is an example of traditional Malay house to prevent floods and insects. Very interesting as the house was fully furnished with ancient furniture. The old school television with sliding opening, remember the old days when tv was constrained to black and white visual images?

Gasing Show

The next one, we went to Rumah Kedah. At Rumah Pulau Pinang, I was hooked to the showcase of gasing. I arrived late as I was busy taking pictures of Rumah Perlis and Kedah, so I missed the gasing spinning demonstration. But pendekar gasing and Pak Kasim gasing were kind enough to explain one more time and insisted on me to try spin the gasing. Do you know there are 100 types of gasing? I remembered pointing out to each type of gasing and ask what are they. Pendekar gasing said, “Toyol”, “Beremban”, “Talam Dua Muka”, “Johor Lama”, “Payung Borneo”.

Some gasings can spin for seconds but gasings properly setup can spin for more than half an hour. We always listen to the term of car balancing, when you speak to a gasing expert, it dawns on you gasing also needs balancing fix.

The joy of the day was when I spinned a gasing for the first time of my life. According to Pendekar Gasing, in order to spin a gasing, you first need to know how to tie the gasing. That’s the key to success for gasing spinning. For right-handed person, you need to tie the gasing anti-clock direction. Then balance of the rope should be tied to your wrist. The gasing needs to be held as if you want to roll the gasing on the ground. Then you throw the gasing on the platform and immediately pull the rope. The gasing will fall down and spin.

Playing gasing can be as addictive as playing candy crush. Don’t believe me? Then you should try gasing. Tell me how it feels then.

I did not manage to join the other participants for food serving at Rumah Negeri Sembilan. It is where you will be served food on a dulang.